MWL1 Peoria Chiefs

Chiefs Rally for Another Ninth Inning Road Win

Published on May 5, 2009 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release


Lansing, MI - Rebel Ridling's three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning capped a comeback for the Peoria Chiefs in a 7-6 win Tuesday night over the Lansing Lugnuts. The win moves the Chiefs to 13-11 on the season, 4-3 on the road trip and marks their second win in as many days in the top of the ninth.

Trailing 6-4 into the ninth the Chiefs rallied in a big way. Josh Harrison led off with his fourth hit of the game and advanced to second on an error by pitcher Mike Barbara. Drew Rundle singled to right to put runners on the corners for Ridling. Ridling drilled a line-drive homer off the screen in left that was originally ruled a double but changed to a three-run homer for a 7-6 Chiefs lead.

Lansing wasted little time in jumping on Chiefs starter Aaron Shafer. After two quick outs, Mark Sobolewski hit a grounder in the hole at shortstop that Junior Lake tried to backhand and failed to catch for an infield single. Yohermyn Chavez took advantage and blasted his MWL-leading sixth homer into the leftfield berm for a 2-0 Lugnuts lead.

Peoria bounced right back to tie the game against Chuck Huggins in the top of the second. Kyler Burke led off with a single that bounced off the glove of a diving Mike McDade at first base. After two pop-ups Lake reached on an infield single to third and both runners scored on a long single to left by Ryan Flaherty.

Jon Del Campo led off the Lansing second with a triple to straight-away center field and scored easily on a line-drive sacrifice fly to right off the bat of Jon Talley. The RBI, Talley's eighth, put the Lugnuts up 3-2 against Shafer. Two innings later the same duo added to the Lugnuts lead. With two down Del Campo tripled to center again and came home on a wild pitch with Talley at the plate.

Lansing continued their triples explosion in the fifth inning. After two quick outs Tyler Pastornicky tripled to the wall in right-center. Sobolewski made it 5-2 with an infield single up the middle.

Peoria cut into the lead in the seventh against the Lugnuts bullpen but left another run in scoring position. Michael Brenly led off with a single to center against Jonas Cuotto. Harrison followed with his second double of the game to put two runners in coring position with no outs. Cuotto struck out Rundle before Ridling made it a 5-3 game with a sac fly to deep left-center. Frank Gailey relived Cuotto and struck out Burke to end the inning with Harrison stranded at third.

Josh Vitters cut the two-run deficit in half while leading off the eighth inning with a solo homer to leftcenter. The blast cleared the berm and is the second of the season for the Cubs number one prospect. Three batters later Flaherty reached on a two-base error by McDade but was left in scoring position as the tying run. Lansing added a big insurance run against Mike Perconte in the bottom of the eighth. Sobolewski led off with a single and stole second with two outs. Del Campo drew a walk and Talley delivered a broken-bat RBI single to right for a 6-4 Lansing lead.

Shafer allowed five runs on six hits over six innings. The righty walked one and did not record a strikeout for the first time this season and the second time in his career. Perconte (2-1) threw the final two innings and allowed a run on three hits while walking one and striking out two. Erik Hamren nailed down his fifth save in the bottom of the ninth with a strikeout and allowed just one baserunner on an error.

Casey's General Store Player of the Game - Rebel Ridling (1B) - Ridling delivered his sixth gamewinning RBI of the season with a three-run homer in the top of the ninth. The homer is his third of the season and Ridling is now tied for the MWL lead with 24 RBI. In addition to the homer he drove home a run with a sac fly in the seventh.

Notes... Harrison was 4-for-5 and now has a 14-game hit streak in which he is 23-for-52...The four-hit game for Harrison is the first four-hit game for any Chiefs player this season...Ridling joins Nelson Perez as the only Chiefs to drive in four runs in a game this season...The Chiefs have won back-to-back games in their final at-bat...This was Peoria's first win of the season when trailing after seven innings...Peoria is 5-3 in the first game of a series this season...Harrison has nine multi-hit games while Vitters has eight...Ridling leads the team with six multi-RBI games...The three run comeback ties for the Chiefs largest comeback of the season in a game they went on to win...Hamren is five-for-six in save chances...Peoria is 8-7 in one-run games...Shafer has allowed a home run in four consecutive starts...The three-game series continues in Lansing Wednesday at 10:35 pm EST...The Chiefs will send RH Marcus Hatley (1-1, 4.24) against Lugnuts RH Ryan Koch (0-1, 6.23)...The game can be heard starting with the pre-game show at 9:20 am CDT on 96.5 ESPN Radio and www.peoriachiefs.com.

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Midwest League Stories from May 5, 2009


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